Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” (1867) is a moving dynamic of the older poetic philosophy of Romanticism and its evolution into the more cynical Modernism of the Industrial Revolution. As an individual work, analyzed for its own deliberate virtue, Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” would hold a great deal of personal meaning to any secular agnostic that may feel that the pious creativity of most poets excludes them from their readerships. Arnold’s work, “Dover Beach”, in a beautiful sort of melancholy, laments the uncertainties and bitter world that we as peoples of a modern civilization find ourselves a part of. This “darkling plain” (35), as Arnold so describes it, is what has come to replace the divine intervention of God’s protection and divine salvation. Matthew Arnold (1822 – 1888) was an English poet and critic who wrote avidly about the social, religious, and educational issues of his day. In an era where Britain was embracing the efficiency of industrial production, and the marvels of technology and science began their first infantile steps into the role the church once held in the lives of many Europeans, poets like Matthew Arnold, ever the mirrors of culture, began to artistically document this shift. It was a movement away from the social Christian norm of a world created by God, towards a colder, crueler reality of soulless steam engines, and evolutionary theory. This first step towards poetic acknowledgement of this new age was Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach,” and his work becoming the poetic forefather of “Modern Sensibility.” The opening stanza of Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” is a soothing description of what is believed to be Matthew Arnold looking out the window of his honeymoon cottage over a moonlit pebble beach of the Dover area of Southeastern England. All, save for the last line, is poetic romanticism at its finest; describing the “moon-blanch'd land” (8) as it’s rhythmically washed by the sea, and the sound of the rasping pebbles echoing across the shoreline. The opening stanza of “Dover Beach” is meant to lull the reader into a peaceful composure, imagining the scene with the entire divine splendor that Arnold was writing with. The final line, however, Matthew Arnold ominously calls this scenery the medium that brings “the eternal note of sadness in” (14); the emotional music, that carries with it spiritual manna, bares the stinging bitter-sweet realization that none of it is actually real.

Sophocles (495 – 406), the Greek tragedy playwright, is described by Matthew Arnold as hearing the same sound in the Mediterranean when inspired to write his tragedies such as Antigone, King Oedipus, and Electra. Arnold describes it as having “brought into his mind the turbid ebb and flow of human misery” (16). This comparison to Sophocles’ Theban plays, in their pitiless misfortunes, foreshadows the mood of the following stanzas. The touching enchantment of first devout stanza of “Dover Beach” is now enveloped by the ugly and secular truth of the world. Matthew Arnold describes the “sea of faith” (20), the divine protection of religious devotion, as an encompassing “bright girdle furl'd” (22) that is now retreating before human reason, “the breath of the night-wind” (25). In the final stanza of “Dover Beach”, Matthew Arnold writes “Ah, love, let us be true / To one another! for the world which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams, / So various, so beautiful, so new, / Hath really neither joy, nor love, or light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;” (28-33). In these emotionally charged lines Arnold pleas that they cling to each other against a land that is beautiful as only an exterior to an unfeeling, Godless world. The beautiful world, the world of the Romantic, is a lie; there is only the callous Modern world, devoid of answered hopes or prayers. Matthew Arnold writes in a very similar fashion to William Wordsworth, “we are here as on a darkling plain” (34), to convey how...

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...﻿The poem “DoverBeach” written by Matthew Arnold is about a human misery.
Nature especially the sea is used in order to draw a comparison between the fights of nature and the human misery.
The poem consists of four stanzas which have a different amount of lines. The first stanza consists of 14 lines, the second of six, the third of eight and the last line of nine lines. The rhyme scheme is very irregular. For example, in the first eight lines of the poem it is abacdbdc.
The first stanza can be divided into two parts. In the first part (line one to line six) the lyrical I describes the motions of the sea in a very positive way. The words “to-night” (l. 1), “moon” (l.2) and “night-air” (l.6) show that it is night. To create a very harmonious mood the poet utilizes adjectives such as “fair”, “tranquil” and “calm”. Matthew Arnold uses an anaphora (“Gleams” and “Glimmering” l.4/5), to underline the harmonious atmosphere of the first six lines. The word “only” in line seven can be seen as a caesura. After line seven the harmonious mood of the first lines is changing into a sad mood. The word sea is personified by the verb “meets” in line seven. The personification and the expression “moon-blanched land” create a mystic atmosphere. With the words of sound “listen”, “hear” and “roar” in line nine Arnold wants to activate the reader”s perception of senses to involve him in his poem. Also, he involves the readership by using the imperatives “come”...

...“DoverBeach” by Matthew Arnold is a poem from the late 1800’s, which discusses a man’s view on emotion, life, and religion. The author Matthew Arnold portrays this message by using action and the setting of DoverBeach. He alludes to DoverBeach in many ways in order to talk about his personal views. An example is, when the author starts talking about the physical setting of DoverBeach, which he uses to allude to the emotions that he feels. The author then goes on to discuss the human condition and how life isn’t that great and people aren’t that happy. Finally the author uses The Sea of Faith to convey the message that people do not believe in religion as much as they used to.
The Author uses the physical setting of DoverBeach to allude to the emotions that he feels, he talks about “The eternal note of sadness”(14) he then goes on to state what is causing the sadness “…the grating roar/of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling”(9,10). The sounds that the speaker hears are sad and melancholy to him. The speaker goes on to say the waves drawing back and flinging forward has a feel of “tremulous cadence slow”(13). The author continuously is alluding to DoverBeach as a place of eternal sadness, and “tremulous cadence”(13). This is important to the poem because it sets the mood for the upcoming...

...At first glance, Anthony Hecht's "Dover Bitch" is not only funnier than Matthew Arnold's "DoverBeach", but also describes a more "liberated" relationship; the poem is as free from what some would consider stuffy Victorian morals as it is from references to Sophocles. Hecht's urbane and flippant persona tends to win over its audience, whether they find irony in the poem that adds to their appreciation of "DoverBeach", appreciate the poem as a criticism of Victorian morals, or laugh at Arnold's apparent inability to give his girl "a good time." "Dover Bitch" also seems to give more power to the lover, who is kept behind the scenes in Arnold, by bringing "her" opinions and wishes into the foreground of the poem. However, on closer examination, it becomes evident that Hecht appropriates rather than liberates the voice of the lover and trivializes her in a way that Arnold does not. Hecht at first seems more enlightened, but the evidence leads one to believe that Arnold's views might not have been in need of criticism in the first place.
The theme of Matthew Arnold's "DoverBeach", enduring love, is rather typical of the Victorian period; so it makes sense that many consider Hecht's parody rather typical of the Modernist period. In "The Dover Bitch: Victorian Duck or Modernist Duck/Rabbit?" Gerhard Joseph suggests that the Dover poems...

..."DoverBeach" is a difficult poem to analyze; some of its passages and metaphors have become so well-known that they are hard to see with "fresh eyes".[3] Arnold begins with a naturalistic and detailed nightscape of the beach at Dover in which auditory imagery plays a significant role[4] ("Listen! you hear the grating roar"). The beach, however, is bare, with only a hint of humanity in a light that "gleams and is gone"[5] Reflecting the traditional notion that the poem was written during Arnold's honeymoon (see composition section), one critic notes that "the speaker might be talking to his bride."[6]
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; —on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Arnold looks at two aspects of this naturalistic scene, its soundscape (in the first and second stanza) and the retreating actions of the tide (in the third stanza). Arnold hears the sound of the sea as "the eternal note of sadness"....

...a hopeless romantic to a person who doesn’t even believe that love exists. A perfect example of how the views of love can be drastically different can be illustrated by these two poems; “DoverBeach” and “Dover Bitch”. “DoverBeach”, was written by Matthew Arnold in the 19th century. The love Arnold speaks of in his poem is a deep love that is indestructible. “Dover Bitch” was written by Anthony Hecht, in response to “DoverBeach” and refers to love as being a joke and nonexistent. Arnold can be portrayed as being a hopeless romantic while Hecht is skeptical and a cynic when it comes to love. There are many factors which influence the authors’ literary works including: the time period, the object of love in their poem and their overall view of the world. These components as well as the tones of the of the poems help convey the author’s view point on love and its place in society.
Matthew Arnold’s legendary poem “DoverBeach” encapsulated the era that the poem was written in. He wrote this poem during the 19th century while he was honeymooning with his wife. Rumor has it that the newlyweds were honeymooning at DoverBeach but no one can be certain. In order to get a better grasp on what the text of the poem is referring to we must know what’s going on during the time period. When “Dover...

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20 April 2011
DoverBeach and Fahrenheit 451
The classic poem, DoverBeach, written by Matthew Arnold, is a statement about losing faith as a result of enlightenment. In an emotionally charged scene in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, fireman Guy Montag reads the poem aloud to his wife and her friends. Bradbury could have chosen any piece of literature for Montag to read as a means of unveiling his collection of hoarded books and his newfound interest in reading them. Bradbury uses this particular piece because the speaker in the poem is expressing feelings that are very similar to those of Montag in Fahrenheit 451.
Matthew Arnold’s masterpiece, DoverBeach, has been dissected and analyzed endlessly since its release in 1867. In order to understand the meaning of the poem, it is important to grasp both the important events of the time during which it was written and Arnold’s personal background. In the latter part of the nineteenth century many European and American artists and writers began to focus on the virtues of individualism and free thinking, rather than the concepts of rationality or religion that had previously dominated the philosophical and artistic communities. This shift in philosophy was catalyzed by a number of developments of the mid-nineteenth century, specifically, two scientific discoveries that led many to doubt the previously unquestioned religious...

...Fahrenheit 451 is a well-written book that tells a story of a dream world and one man who wakes up from that dream. Montag, the protagonist of the story, brings home a book of poetry one day and begins to read the poem DoverBeach by Matthew Arnold to his wife and her guests. Many critics think that Bradbury picked this poem because it paralleled life in his book. The poem DoverBeach can be compared to Fahrenheit 451 because both pieces of writing talk about themes of true love, fantasy and allover hopelessness.
One of the ways Fahrenheit 451 can be related to Arnold's DoverBeach is by connecting the absence
of true love in both of them. Throughout the book, Montag slowly realizes that he does not truly love his wife Mildred. In the beginning, Montag believes that he truly loves Mildred. However, as the book goes on, he meets Clarisse, and begins to change his way of thought. He slowly begins to wake up from the dream world that he is living in. As he begins to know Clarisse, he slowly realizes that Mildred does not share the same deep passion for life that he does. At the beginning of the Sieve and the Sand, Montag frantically reads books to gain more knowledge. Mildred complains and kicks the books around, showing that her and her husband are growing apart. At the end of the book, Montag is talking to Granger, and says "... Even if she dies, I realized a moment ago, I don't think...

...Analysis
In Stefan Collini's opinion, "DoverBeach" is a difficult poem to analyze, and some of its passages and metaphors have become so well known that they are hard to see with "fresh eyes".[3] Arnold begins with a naturalistic and detailed nightscape of the beach at Dover in which auditory imagery plays a significant role ("Listen! you hear the grating roar").[4] The beach, however, is bare, with only a hint of humanity in a light that "gleams and is gone".[5] Reflecting the traditional notion that the poem was written during Arnold's honeymoon (see composition section), one critic notes that "the speaker might be talking to his bride".[6]
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; —on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Arnold looks at two aspects of this scene, its soundscape (in the first and second stanzas) and the retreating...